Being and Truth

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Translators’ Foreword......Page 16
THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY Summer Semester 1933......Page 20
§1. The spiritual-political mission as a decision for thefundamental question......Page 22
§2. The Greek questioning in poetry and thought and the inception of philosophy.......Page 24
§3. What philosophy is not. Rejection of inadequate attempts to define it......Page 26
§4. The fundamental question of philosophy and the confrontation with the history of the Western spirit in its highest position: Hegel......Page 29
Main Part  The Fundamental Question and Metaphysics: Preparation for a Confrontation with Hegel......Page 32
§5. Considerations for the confrontation with Hegel......Page 34
a) The origin of the concept of metaphysics as a bibliographical title for particular Aristotelian writings......Page 36
b) From the bibliographical title to the substantive concept.The Christian transformation of the concept of metaphysics: knowledge of the supersensible (trans physicam)......Page 37
a) On the influence of the Christianization of the concept of metaphysics......Page 39
b) The three rational disciplines of modern metaphysics and Kant’s question regarding the inner possibility and limits of metaphysical cognition as cognition on the basis of pure reason......Page 40
a) The task: a historical return to the turning points in theconcept of metaphysics......Page 42
b) The Greek concept of the teachable and learnable (τὰ μαθήματα) and the inner connection between the“mathematical” and the “methodological”......Page 44
§9. The precedence of the mathematical and its advance decision regarding the content of modern philosophy: the possible idea of knowability and truth......Page 48
a) The usual picture of Descartes: the rigorous new grounding of philosophy on the basis of radical doubt......Page 49
b) The illusion of radicalism and the new grounding in Descartes under the predominance of the mathematical conception of method......Page 50
c) The substantive consequence of the predominance of themathematical conception of method......Page 54
§11. The predominance of the mathematical conception of method in the formation of metaphysical systems in the eighteenth century......Page 56
§12. Introductory concepts from Wolff’s Ontology. The point of departure: the philosophical principles of all human cognition......Page 57
§13. The two main tasks that frame modern metaphysics: the grounding of the essence of Being in general and the proof of the essence and existence of God......Page 60
a) The concept of veritas metaphysica: the agreement of what is with the most universal principles......Page 61
b) Preliminary considerations on the principial character of the principle by which the ens in communi is supposed to be determined......Page 62
§15. Baumgarten’s starting point as the possibile (what can be) and the logical principle of contradiction as the absolutely first principle of metaphysics......Page 63
§16. Remarks on the grounding of the principium primum.The principle of contradiction and human Dasein: the preservation of the selfsameness of the selfsame......Page 64
§17. The mathematical-logical determination of the starting point, goal, and deductive method in Baumgarten’s metaphysical system......Page 67
a) The summum ens as perfectissimum. The belonging of the perfectum to the concept of Being and its suitability as leading to the highest being......Page 68
b) The main steps in the construction of the metaphysical system......Page 69
§18. Transition to Hegel......Page 74
§19. The fundamental character of Hegelian metaphysics. Metaphysics as theo-logic......Page 75
a) Hegel’s metaphysics as logic......Page 76
b) Logic as the system of the absolute self-consciousnes sof God: theo-logic......Page 79
§20. The completion of Western philosophy in metaphysics as theo-logic and the questionworthiness of this “completion”......Page 80
§21. Confrontation and engagement......Page 81
ON THE ESSENCE OF TRUTH Winter Semester 1933–1934......Page 84
§1. The question of the essence of truth and the willing of  what is true in our Dasein......Page 86
a) Dasein’s becoming essential in authentic care for its ability to be and the putting to work of the essence of things.......Page 88
b) The question of the what of essence. Harkening back to the Greek inception......Page 90
a) The first part of the saying. Struggle as the power of generation and preservation: innermost necessity of beings......Page 91
b) The second part of the saying. The sway of the double power of struggle and the decisive domains of power......Page 93
a) Two traditional meanings of truth. Truth as un-concealment (ἀ-λήθεια) and as correctness......Page 95
b) The indeterminate prior knowing of truth and the superior power of Being......Page 98
a) The human bond to the superior power of Being and the necessity of language......Page 99
b) The logical-grammatical conception of language......Page 100
d) Toward a positive delimitation of the essence of language......Page 102
e) The ability to keep silent as the origin and ground of language......Page 103
f) Language as the gathered openedness for the overpowering surge of beings......Page 108
g) Language as lawgiving gathering and revelation of the structure of beings......Page 109
h) Language as λόγος and as μῦθος......Page 110
§6. The double sway of the struggle (ἔδειξε—ἐποίησε) as indication of the connection between Being and truth......Page 111
§7. The historical transformation of the essence of truth and Dasein......Page 112
a) The long-accustomed conception of truth as correctness.......Page 113
b) The last struggle between the earlier (inceptive) and later concept of truth in the philosophy of Plato......Page 115
§9. The start of the investigation with the myth of the“allegory of the cave” as the center of Platonic philosophy......Page 116
Part One Truth and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s Republic......Page 118
§10. Interpretive procedure and the structure of the allegory of the cave......Page 120
A. The first stage (514a–515c)  §11. The situation of the human being in the subterranean cave......Page 122
§12. What is unconcealed in the cave......Page 123
B. The second stage (515c–515e5) §13. A “liberation” of the human being within the cave......Page 125
§14. Expanded conception of unconcealment in the failure of the first attempt at liberation......Page 127
C. The third stage (515e5–516e2) §15. The authentic liberation of the human being to the originary light......Page 129
§16. Liberation and unconcealment. Four questions about their connection......Page 132
a) Preliminary remark on the significance of the doctrine of the ideas in the history of spirit......Page 134
b) The fundamental orientation of knowledge toward “seeing” and what is seen......Page 135
a) On the idea in the context of Platonic thought. The priority of seeing and its broader concept......Page 137
b) The seeing of what-Being. Idea and Being: presencing—self-presence in the view......Page 138
c) The essence of light and brightness: transparency that is perceived and seen in advance......Page 139
a) On the determination of man on the basis ofseeing, hearing, and speaking......Page 141
b) Freedom as binding oneself to the illuminating......Page 143
a) Freedom as binding oneself to the essential law of Dasein and of things......Page 144
b) The view of essence that reaches ahead as a projection of Being (with examples from nature, history, art, and poetry)......Page 145
a) The doctrine of ideas and the question of truth......Page 147
b) Degrees of unconcealment. The ideas as what is originally unconcealed (ἀληθινόν) and what is in the proper sense (ὄντως ὄν)......Page 148
c) The ideas as what is seen in a pre-figuring(projective) viewing......Page 151
d) On the question of the character of the Being of the ideas......Page 152
a) The allegory of the cave as history (happening) of man......Page 153
b) Unconcealing as a fundamental characteristic of human ex-sistence......Page 154
c) On the essential determination of man. Truth as a fundamental happening in the human essence......Page 155
D. The fourth stage (516e3–517a6)\n §23. The return of the liberated man into the cave......Page 157
§24. The philosopher as liberator. His fate in the happening of revealing and concealing......Page 159
a) The philosopher’s freedom: being a liberator in the transition......Page 162
b) Truth and untruth. Modes of untruth as concealment......Page 163
§26. The idea of the good as highest idea: the empowerment of Being and unconcealment......Page 164
a) The idea of the idea. On grasping the highest idea on the basis of the general essence of idea......Page 165
b) Approach to the complete determination of the idea of the good as the highest idea......Page 167
a) Seeing (ὁρᾶν) and understanding that apprehends (νοεῖν)......Page 168
b) The good as the higher empowering power for Being and truth in their linked essence......Page 171
a) Review: the inner order of the question of the essence of truth......Page 172
b) The good as the empowerment of truth and Being in their belonging together......Page 174
c) Philosophy as παιδεία of humanity for the innermost change in its Being.......Page 176
On 30 January 1933: Kolbenheyer......Page 178
d) On the proper approach to the question of the human essence......Page 182
a) The question of the essence of truth as the question of the history of the human essence......Page 184
b) The existential determination of human Being and the question of the truth of humanity......Page 186
c) The lack of questioning about the Being of the good as yoke and about unconcealment as such......Page 187
d) The necessity of a transformed retrieval......Page 189
a) The transformation of the question of the essence of truth into the question of untruth......Page 190
b) Preliminary clarification of the fundamental concepts: ψεῦδος, λήθη, and ἀ-λήθεια......Page 191
Part Two An Interpretation of Plato’s Theaetetus with Regard to the Question of the Essence of Untruth......Page 194
§31. On the question of the essence of ἐπιστήμη......Page 196
a) The basis for the detour through Greek philosophy......Page 198
b) The breadth and the fundamental meaning of the Greek concept of knowledge and the origin of the question of untruth......Page 199
a) αἴσθησις as the fundamental form of apprehending things and allowing them to come upon us. The determinate,yet limited openness of αἴσθησις......Page 203
b) The insufficiency of αἴσθησις for distinguishing the manifold domains of what is perceived and the characteristics of their Being......Page 205
c) The soul as the relation to beings that unifies and holds open......Page 206
a) The double sense of δόξα as view: look and belief......Page 207
b) The apparent suitability of δόξα as ἐπιστήμη: its double character corresponds to αἴσθησις and διάνοια......Page 208
c) The multiple ambiguity of δόξα. The split between letting-appear and distorting: the arising of the ψεῦδος in the question of the essence of knowledge......Page 209
a) The arising of the ψεῦδος in the elucidation of δόξα as ἐπιστήμη......Page 211
α) The alternatives of familiarity and unfamiliarity......Page 212
γ) ψευδὴς δόξα as ἀλλοδοξία (substitution instead of confusion......Page 213
a) On the scope and character of the decision......Page 214
b) The new starting point for posing the question by way of the deepened question concerning the constitution of the soul......Page 215
a) The wax simile. Being mindful (making-present)......Page 216
b) The aviary simile. Modes of containing......Page 217
§38. Clarification of the double sense of δόξα. Mistakes are made possible by the bifurcation of δόξα into presencing and making-present......Page 218
§39. The essence of truth as historical man’s struggle with untruth. Untruth is posited with the enabling of the essence of truth......Page 219
1.–8. The fundamental question of philosophy......Page 221
9. Cessation......Page 227
11. Kant’s authentic work {re: [German] p. 26}......Page 228
13. The confrontation with Hegel’s metaphysics......Page 229
14. The confrontation with Hegel (Kierkegaard and Nietzsche)......Page 230
16. Kierkegaard and Hegel—Nietzsche and Hegel......Page 231
17. {Inception and semblance}......Page 232
1. Thomas: veritas; intellectus......Page 233
2. {The dominant conception of truth as correctness}......Page 234
5. Recapitulation of the lecture, 9 January 1934......Page 235
7. {On the inner order of our questioning}......Page 236
10. Theaetetus 184b ff.......Page 242
11. Theaetetus 184d {re: §33c}......Page 243
Editor’s Afterword......Page 244
German–English Glossary......Page 250